Career Day
by dragonprincess1988
Summary: Tim gets called to his guidance counselor's office. I wrote this one in honor of my ex guidance counselor Mr. John Baxter. He's a great man that helped me to survive high school. Thanks to Kathy Brignole for beta work.


It was a normal day--well as normal as it got for 16 year old Timothy Drake. Actually, thinking back on it, the day started out far too easily to be a normal day. He had only been five minutes late for school instead of the normal half hour, and classes were easy and boring, as usual. Tim had only gotten his butt handed to him once the previous night. Yeah, everything was far too easy…that was until it got close to the end of Math class, when he had been abruptly sent to the Guidance Office.

Tim didn't really mind going to the Guidance Office that much. It was a pain, but his counselor, Mr. Baxter, wasn't a bad guy. Sure, he had no idea what really went on in Tim's life, but the guy was nice and he genuinely cared about the kids he dealt with. The best part about Mr. Baxter was he didn't care about the whole formal greeting crap, especially since Tim saw him so often--almost everyday in fact. After his freshman year, Tim had shortened Mr. Baxter to Baxter. Now, however, Tim addressed him simply as B. There were those in the office that didn't appreciate how close the two of them were, saying that it was inappropriate and disrespectful, but what they didn't realize was, that if Tim was that close to anyone in his life that didn't know he was Robin, even if it was a school guidance counselor, it was still a big accomplishment.

Breathing a heavy sigh, Tim walked into the office, and then smiled up at the secretary, as always. She simply smiled back and gestured for him to go into Mr. Baxter's office. When he walked in, Mr. Baxter was sitting, with his back to the door, and he was facing his laptop computer, which was sitting on the L shaped desk. Tim knocked on the door quietly, and Mr. Baxter spun his chair around to face him. With a genuinely happy smile on his face, Mr. Baxter motioned for Tim to take a seat. "How are you today?"

Tim shrugged. "Fine, I guess. You know same old same old." The thing about Mr. Baxter was, even though everyone asked the same question as small talk; he actually cared about the answer. He would also encourage you to talk about things that bothered you. Not because it was his job, but because knew how stressed out teenagers could get and didn't like seeing anyone like that.

Still smiling Mr. Baxter continued on with his conversation. "I bet you're wondering why I called you up here."

Tim didn't say anything. Instead he nodded curtly.

"I called you up here because it's career day next week, and I thought we should discuss your career options." Mr. Baxter took one look at the boy's raised eyebrow and couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Don't worry, all of the guidance counselors have to do it with all of their students."

Tim leaned back in the chair. "Oh, yippy skippy."

Mr. Baxter smiled once again. "Yeah, I don't want to do it either, but you know how it is. So, what careers will you be checking out next week?"

Tim laughed lightly. "I don't know, B, I have a hard enough time picking my electives. I mostly just let you do the work."

Mr. Baxter sat back. "Well, you do well in all of your classes, and you have a great work ethic. Although, it wouldn't hurt you any to get here on time, you know?"

Tim looked down at his shoes, and then gave him the same reply he always gave everyone when this subject would arise. "Ah, but B, my bed is just so comfy, and you actually expect me to leave it at six am. It's completely unheard of." Laughing a bit, he thought, especially when I don't get in it until five am on most nights.

Mr. Baxter giggled some at that too. "Well, we'll see. Anyway, back to your career options. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You could do anything that you wanted, really."

Tim was still slouched in his seat. It was the same pathetic line which parents and teachers fed kids, but somehow coming from Mr. Baxter it actually meant something. That was the funny thing about Mr. Baxter, he would say things to you that a million people in your life would say at one point or another, but because it came from him, it held so much more weight. The other thing was, in Tim's case at least, even if it were something he didn't want to hear, if it came from Mr. Baxter he would undoubtedly listen and follow it. "So, B, what do you think I should go into?"

Mr. Baxter sat in his chair thinking for a little while. "Well, you should definitely look into things that interest you, things that you like. For instance, what do you do after school?"

Tim grinned, more to himself than anything else. "You know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. School is school, home is home." He finished the rest of that sentence in his head. And being Robin is being Robin.

Mr. Baxter started to pull out some booklets and things, and handed them to Tim. "Take these with you, and if you get some time, look through them. If you want to, write down a few of the ones you think you might be interested in and we can discuss them." Mr. Baxter then led Tim out of his office and back into the hallway. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

Tim gave him an evil smile. "Why do you plan to call me up again?"

Mr. Baxter placed a hand on the young man's shoulder. "No, but the day is young and I see you almost everyday. So, who knows?" They both laughed and Tim started to walk away, flipping through the booklets as he went.

Batman and Robin had just finished getting ready for patrol and were doing inventory of their utility belts before they left. Suddenly Batman turned to find a stack of books and pamphlets on his worktable. "Robin, what are these?"

Robin turned not noticing what Batman was referring to. "Oh, those are from my guidance counselor at school. He wants me to look through them and pick a few careers that interest me so, I can discuss them with him."

Batman eyed them incredulously. "And did you?"

Robin ran a gloved hand through his hair. "I might have glanced through them a little."

Batman walked over to the Batmobile, and Robin followed. "Well, when we get back from patrol you will be going through those."

Robin stood there dumbfounded, and then climbed into the car. The moment he was inside the engine roared and the car rocketed out of the cave.

The End


End file.
